Success Stories

See results from education initiatives around the world

Intel® Education Solutions support twenty-first century learning environments by providing a critical foundation from which educators, governments, and communities can leverage the potential of technology to transform education and advance student achievement. Follow the links below to learn more about the success of Intel® Education Solutions and access highlights from initiatives conducted around the globe.

SOLUTION: Provide Intel® classmate PCs so all students have access to technology, deliver professional development for teachers to use technology effectively, build local PC factory, and create jobs

The nation of Portugal had historically performed at the bottom of European educational surveys and had a distinct economic divide in its population. In 2008, the government responded with the Magellan Initiative, a national technology plan to “consolidate the role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a basic skill to learn and teach in this new era.”

The initiative aimed to promote digital literacy and increase social mobility for students and their parents. It focused on reaching children in the early learning stages, with the hope of creating a generation of technology-literate citizens.

The Portuguese government developed a comprehensive program that included teacher professional development, technology, infrastructure, and additional services for disadvantaged students. Professional development for teachers has helped them integrate technology into their lesson plans, as well as enhance their teaching skills in language and mathematics.

The program also made it affordable for thousands of families to purchase their first PC. 600,000 primary school students received Intel® classmate PCs with educational software to help them develop twenty-first century skills, such as digital literacy. The initiative provided broadband Internet to schools and to families that didn’t have it, so they could fully participate in the digital era. Additional support was provided to disadvantaged students in the form of books, meals, English teaching, and other extracurricular activities.

The results in student achievement have been impressive. Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores in reading, science, and math improved by up to 20 points between 2006 and 2009, with the greatest improvement happening among the lowest-achieving students. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), “The PISA 2009 results demonstrate that Portugal is making progress in achieving the goals set by the reformers.”

Further, the program had near-term economic impacts. The government worked with Intel to develop a local ecosystem for manufacturing the Intel classmate PCs and providing local educational content, support, and services. The Magellan Initiative project-related ecosystem created 1,500 jobs in Portugal, with an overall impact on the nation’s economy estimated to be EUR 2.3 billion (USD 2.9 billion).

By taking a comprehensive approach to education transformation, the Portuguese government, working together with Intel, achieved strong results in student achievement and also fostered economic development.

SOLUTION: Implement 1:1 eLearning, provide professional development for teachers, create local infrastructure for building PCs and educational content

Terengganu is a Malaysian state with more than 1 million citizens. The government recognized the importance of a knowledge-based economy to its long-term success, and in 2009 launched Projek Buku Elektronik to increase digital access and literacy among students and their families. Specific goals included reducing the digital divide between urban and rural and between high- and low-income households.

As part of a national initiative, teachers from each school participated in the Intel® Teach professional development program to learn how to integrate technology effectively in their teaching and develop twenty-first century skills in their students.

Students in grades four, five, and six received Intel® classmate PCs and were allowed to take them home for family use, giving low-income families equal access to technology. The computers are loaded with digital textbooks, test preparation software, Intel® education resources, and other content including the Koran, and other religious resources, and a dictionary. Classrooms were outfitted with electronic whiteboards, Internet connectivity, Wi-Fi access points, a teacher workstation, and sufficient electrical outlets for children to charge their computers in class.

The Terengganu government also collaborated with Intel and a state-owned manufacturer to open a factory for assembling PCs and developing software. The factory will be able to supply 10,000 Intel classmate PCs a month and has provided hundreds of local high-tech jobs and training.

As a result of this program, a record 15.4 percent of students received grades of all A's. Projek Buku Elektronik has successfully increased digital literacy among young students and bridged the digital divide by bringing technology into the homes of low-income and rural students. And as a boon to the local economy, the initiative created 500 ICT jobs and 360 public-sector jobs.

The Sunnyside Independent School District in Arizona, U.S., serves a community that is 83 percent low income, and whose high schools had been dubbed “dropout factories” by Johns Hopkins University. The district took on the challenge of increasing its high school graduation rate and improving students’ college preparedness.

Sunnyside launched Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage, a multiphase, research-based effort aimed at preventing high school dropout and increasing graduation rates. It includes six components as follows:

Graduation Plan: Create a graduation plan for each student that is site-based and developed by all stakeholders.

Credit Recovery: Increase the number of seniors on track to graduate and the number of on-time grade promotions through the use of credit recovery courses.

Freshman Intervention: Identify freshman needs and challenges prior to the school year and throughout the freshman year to ensure academic success.

Advisory/Homeroom: Connect all students to school and develop opportunities for adult support of their academic and attendance progress.

Attendance Monitoring: Increase the daily attendance rate and decrease the number of truancies for freshmen. Create a culture that connects attendance to academic achievement.

The Digital Advantage: Award computers to freshmen who meet goals in the “4 A's” by the end of the first semester: Academics, Attendance, Activity, and Attitude.

Sunnyside drew on the resources of an Arizona State University grant and the Intel® Teach program to improve coaching for classroom teachers in integrating technology into instructional design. It hired instructional technology specialists and designated one teacher in each school to step out of the classroom to receive special professional development on using technology effectively. These trained teachers then coached others.

Project Graduation has been tremendously successful, boosting high school graduation numbers from 505 to 873 in five years and also increasing college readiness. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of students admitted to the University of Arizona increased from 80 to 140. The program has been so successful for Sunnyside students and attracted so much national attention that the district offers Project Graduation materials to other districts so that they can replicate its success.

CHALLENGE: Improve early reading and writing to boost performance
in all subjects

SOLUTION: Integrate Intel® classmate PCs with digital lesson content for reading and writing, provide professional development for teachers

Ale, Sweden, a municipality in western Sweden, decided to use technology in its schools to achieve both short- and long-range objectives. In the short term, it focused on improving the reading and writing skills of younger students, which research shows improves performance in all other subjects and creates an attitude of success that impacts a student’s entire school career. In the long term, Ale’s goal is to increase the number of students who graduate from high school. Research shows that dropouts lead far less progressive and affluent lives and are a financial drain on society.

Ale focused on helping second graders “crack” the reading code. To implement this “writing yourself to reading” technique, Ale gave its youngest learners Intel® classmate PCs.

Ale provided teachers with professional development on integrating technology into their lessons using the Intel® Teach program and gave them abundant digital lesson content. All classrooms are fully equipped with Wi-Fi.

Ale has been highly successful in meeting its short-term goals. In 2010-2011, test scores showed that the students’ third-grade language arts scores improved by 20 percent and third-grade math scores increased 17 percent. The schools have also found that using technology helps focus active students (boys especially), calm classrooms, and give children with disabilities a more equal playing field.

In the long term, Ale believes that increased success in early grades will yield even bigger payoffs in later grades—to students and to society. Research shows that every student who drops out of high school costs society around USD 1.4 million—in welfare, adult schooling, police and law enforcement, treatment, and other support costs. Ale figures if it can get even five more kids to complete high school each year, it will recoup its technology investment—and increase the level of self-esteem, knowledge, and skills for the individuals it has trained.

Although still in the early stages of this long-range program, Ale believes that its strategy of grounding students solidly in reading and writing skills at a young age will have positive repercussions throughout the student’s school career and life—and positive repercussions for society.

SOLUTION: Provide 1:1 PCs in high schools, provide infrastructure
and tech support in schools, provide professional development and learning communities for teachers

The Klein Independent School District (ISD) near Houston, Texas, set out to aggressively integrate technology into its classrooms to better engage students and embrace twenty-first century learning.

In 2004 Klein ISD launched the Technology Baseline Standard Initiative, which set out to ensure that all students had ready access to technology tools for learning by equipping each K-12 classroom with a suite of technology tools. It also ensured that teachers were prepared to maximize those tools in a technology-integrated curriculum.

The district provided professional development for teachers in how to integrate technology into their lesson plans. Teachers received PCs one year before students did, and technology specialists supported teachers during the process. In addition to working with their campus instructional technology specialists, teachers work together in professional learning communities to support one another. Continued research and implementation of best practices is at the core of the district’s year-round job-embedded professional development program.

In 2006, Klein ISD launched a 1:1 initiative to provide each student with PCs, rolling out one new school a year. Klein made sure that the infrastructure and technical support were in place to support teachers and students. It installed a robust wireless infrastructure and technical repair center at each school where students can have PCs fixed on site.

Klein has seen student achievement increase across all subject areas, with improvements being the greatest among economically disadvantaged students. As measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test, the district has seen the following gains:

Science scores improved 13 percent among the general student population and 24 percent among the economically disadvantaged population.

Gains in reading scores of 3 percent among the general population and by up to 11 percent among the economically disadvantaged.

Math scores increased 6 percent among the general population and 10 percent among the economically disadvantaged.

Social studies scores improved 6 percent for the general population and 14 percent among economically disadvantaged students.

These results demonstrate that Klein ISD is meeting its goals of embracing the future and engaging students in learning. Carefully integrating technology in a rigorous curriculum and providing ample professional development for teachers has allowed Klein ISD to better prepare students for college and careers and give them vital twenty-first century skills that include critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.